In the mid-nineteenth century, as iceboxes became increasingly common in American homes, there were efforts to find cheaper and more reliable sources of ice. In the eighteen-thirties, scientists discovered a way to make ice, which is similar to how a refrigerator works. In 1860, there were four artificial-ice plants in the United States; in 1889, there were about two hundred; by 1909, there were two thousand. Ice now came from factories, not ponds, and it was turned out in three-hundred-pound blocks by lowering steel cans of pure water into tanks of refrigerated salted water. Kept below thirty-two degrees, the salted water did not freeze, but the water in the cans did. Those cans were then lifted from the tank, and the ice was taken out of them.
The ice blocks were delivered to home users, and to the fishing and chemical industries. On the railroads, trains carrying fruit and vegetables had cars at each end filled with blocks of ice. It was a growing industry.
The great trade began to fall away in the middle years of the twentieth century. The railroad business shrank, and, in the immediate postwar period, block ice lost out to home refrigerators and then to small commercial ice machines. By the nineteen-sixties, things looked very dark. “It was scary,” Dan Ditmar, an ice expert in San Antonito, told me. “Your biggest customers were cafeterias and country clubs, and you’d go out there and they’d say, ‘We don’t need you anymore; we’ve got ice machines.’”
Then the companies that survived the slump（a slump is a period when there is a reduction in business）began investing（投资）in newly developed ice-cube machines, and by the late sixties American ice was becoming a packaged-ice business. And packaged ice was exactly what the country needed. These were years of increased leisure time—more barbecues, more cars, and more houses by the lake. “Things exploded in the nineteen-seventies,^ Paul Handler said. Ice cubes evolved. They became hugely popular^ shoveled（铲）here and there into picnic coolers and fast-foof sodas. They became noisier.
1.What happened at the beginning of the 20th century?
A. Ice was mainly used on the railroads.
B. There was a great need for iceboxes.
C. Ice cubes got popular in the US.
D. The ice industry grew very last,
2.What was scary according to Dan Detmar?
A. The slump in the block-ice market.
B. The danger of producing block ice.
C. The social problems in the postwar period
D. The problems caused by home refrigerators.
3.What can we say about the investment in ice-cube machines?
A. It nearly destroyed the US ice industry.
B. It helped increase people’s leisure time.
C. It proved to be a huge success.
D. It caused a decline in ice sales.
4.Which can be the best title for the text?
A. From ponds to factories. B. From ice blocks to ice cubes,
C. From iceboxes to refrigerators. D. From refrigerators to ice machines.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题
In the mid-nineteenth century, as iceboxes became increasingly common in American homes, there were efforts to find cheaper and more reliable sources of ice. In the eighteen-thirties, scientists discovered a way to make ice, which is similar to how a refrigerator works. In 1860, there were four artificial-ice plants in the United States; in 1889, there were about two hundred; by 1909, there were two thousand. Ice now came from factories, not ponds, and it was turned out in three-hundred-pound blocks by lowering steel cans of pure water into tanks of refrigerated salted water. Kept below thirty-two degrees, the salted water did not freeze, but the water in the cans did. Those cans were then lifted from the tank, and the ice was taken out of them.
The ice blocks were delivered to home users, and to the fishing and chemical industries. On the railroads, trains carrying fruit and vegetables had cars at each end filled with blocks of ice. It was a growing industry.
The great trade began to fall away in the middle years of the twentieth century. The railroad business shrank, and, in the immediate postwar period, block ice lost out to home refrigerators and then to small commercial ice machines. By the nineteen-sixties, things looked very dark. “It was scary,” Dan Ditmar, an ice expert in San Antonito, told me. “Your biggest customers were cafeterias and country clubs, and you’d go out there and they’d say, ‘We don’t need you anymore; we’ve got ice machines.’”
Then the companies that survived the slump（a slump is a period when there is a reduction in business）began investing（投资）in newly developed ice-cube machines, and by the late sixties American ice was becoming a packaged-ice business. And packaged ice was exactly what the country needed. These were years of increased leisure time—more barbecues, more cars, and more houses by the lake. “Things exploded in the nineteen-seventies,^ Paul Handler said. Ice cubes evolved. They became hugely popular^ shoveled（铲）here and there into picnic coolers and fast-foof sodas. They became noisier.
1.What happened at the beginning of the 20th century?
A. Ice was mainly used on the railroads.
B. There was a great need for iceboxes.
C. Ice cubes got popular in the US.
D. The ice industry grew very last,
2.What was scary according to Dan Detmar?
A. The slump in the block-ice market.
B. The danger of producing block ice.
C. The social problems in the postwar period
D. The problems caused by home refrigerators.
3.What can we say about the investment in ice-cube machines?
A. It nearly destroyed the US ice industry.
B. It helped increase people’s leisure time.
C. It proved to be a huge success.
D. It caused a decline in ice sales.
4.Which can be the best title for the text?
A. From ponds to factories. B. From ice blocks to ice cubes,
C. From iceboxes to refrigerators. D. From refrigerators to ice machines.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families of their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursors of modern refrigerator, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium(奖金) price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.
1.What does the passage mainly discuss?
A．The influence of ice on the diet.
B．The development of refrigeration.
C．The transportation of goods to market.
D．Sources of ice in the nineteenth century.
2.According to the passage, when did the word “icebox” become part of the language of the United States?
A．in 1803 B．sometime bore 1850
C．during the civil war D．near the end of the nineteenth century.
3.The phrase “forward-looking” in line 3 is closest in meaning to______.
A．progressive B．popular C．thrifty D．well-established
4.The author mentions “fish” in the passage because _____.
A．many fish dealers also sold ice.
B．fish was shipped in refrigerated freight cars.
C．fish dealers were among the early commercial users of ice
D．fish was not part of the ordinary person’s diet before the invention of the icebox.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
As late as the middle of the 19th century women voting was _____ common. But women in Europe and North America believed that they should have a____ in their government’s leaders.
A.less than, word B.far from, say C.rather than, words D.other than, saying
高二英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析
As the railroads and the highways shaped the American West in the past centuries, a new electhical generating（发电）and transmission（输送）systen for the 21th century will leave a lasting mark on the West, for better or worse. Much of the real significance of railroads and highways is not in their direct physical effect on the scenery, but in the ways that they affect the suurouding community. The same is true of big solar ppants and the power lines that will be laid dowm to move electricity around.
The 19thcentury saw land grants（政府拨地）offered to railroad companies to build the transcontinental railroads ,leaving public land in between privately owned land . In much of the west ,some of the railroad sections were developed while others remained undeveloped ,and in both cases the landownership has presented unique challenges to land management ,with the completion or the interstate highway system ,many of the small towns which sprang up as railway stops and developed well ,have lost their lifeblood and died .
Big solar plants and their power lines will also have effects far beyond their direct footprint in the west .this is not an argument against building then ,we need alternative energy badly .and to really take advantage of it we need to be able to move electricity around far more readily than we can now .
So trade-offs will have to be made .some scenic sport will be sacrificed .some species (物种)will be forced to move ,or will be carefully moved to special accommodations ,deals will be struck to reduce the immediate effects .
The lasting effects of these trade-offs are another matter .the 21stcentury development of the American west as an ideal place for alternative energy is going to throw off a lot of power and money to do a lot of good .but it is just as likely that they will be spent wastefully and will leave new problems behind ,just like the railroad and the highway .
The money set aside in negotiated trade –offs and the institution that control will shape the west far beyond the immediate footprint of power plants and transmission lines .so let’s remember the effects of the railroad and the highways as we construct these new power plants in the west .
1.what was the problem caused by the construction of the railways ?
A.small towns along the railways became abandoned .
B.some railroad stops remained .
C.land in the west was hard to manage .
D.land grants went into private hands.
2.what is the major concern in the development of alternative energy according to the last two paragraphs ?
A.the transmission of power B.the use of money and power
C.the conservation of solar energy D.the selection of an ideal place
3.what is the author ‘s attitude towards building solar plants ?
A.cautious B.approving C.doubtful D.disapproving
4.which is the best title for the passage ?
A.how the railways have affected the west
B.how solar energy could reshape the west
C.how the effects of power plants can be reduced
D.how the problems of the highways have been settled
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
As a doctor, I became the 1. (great) surgeon in the country and the president of the National Society of Surgeons. For this reason, a celebration 2. (hold) in my honor But I couldn’t help feeling sad.
On the day, my friend came up to me and said: “You’ve achieved something that others can’t even dream about. 3. are you so sad?”
“I’ve achieved something that I didn’t even want,” I said, “I 4. wanted to be a surgeon and now I can’t escape from it. If I would suffer a 5. (fail) then maybe I would have a chance to do something that I really love. But for now, I’m chained to a thing that I don’t evenlike.”
“You 6. be joking?” my friend cried out, “The biggest honor for a surgeon is 7. (become) the president of our national society. Your wife is happy, your children are happy. Everyone has the highest respect for you!”
But I don t respect myself, that’s 8. is wrong. I wanted to be a dancer, but my parents were against 9. and I listened to them. I was weak. I became a great surgeon, but I am not working in the field that I wanted to devote my life 10.. That is why I am unhappy.
高二英语短文填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Just as the English language has changed quickly in the previous century, so has the use of it.
After the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was founded in 1927, the particular style of speech of the BBC announcers was recognized as standard English or Received Pronunciation (RP) English. Now, most people still consider that the pronunciation and delivery of BBC announcers is the clearest and most understandable spoken English.
English has had a strong relationship with classes and social positions. However, since the Second World War there has been a clear change of attitude towards speech snobbery(自我优越感), and marks of class distinction(区别) such as styles of speech have been gradually diminishing, especially in the younger generation.
By the end of the 1960s, it had become clear that it was not necessary to speak standard English or even correct grammar to become popular, successful and rich. The fashionable speech of the day was no longer the special right of a special class but rather a defiant(反抗的) expression of classlessness.
The greatest single influence of the shaping of the English language in modern times is the American English. Over the last 25 years the English used by many people, particularly by those in the media, advertising and show business, has become more and more mid-Atlantic in style, delivery and accent.
In the 1970s, fashion favored careless pronunciation and a language full of jargon, slang and “in” words, a great quantity of which couldn’t be understood by the outside world. What is considered modern and fashionable in Britain today is often not the kind of English taught in schools and colleges.
1.Which of the following is NOT true?
A．The use of the English language has not changed much in the previous century.
B．BBC announcers speak standard English.
C．English has no relationship with classes and social positions now.
D．Young people don’t like class distinction.
2.What does the author imply by saying “there has been a clear change of attitude towards speech snobbery”?
A．Everyone speaks English as the BBC announcers do.
B．There has been a great change of attitudes towards the status of English.
C．Most people don’t believe the way of speaking by BBC announcers is much better than that of other people.
D．It is necessary to speak standard English with correct grammar.
3.According to the author, there was a trend in the US for young people ________.
A．to speak standard English
B．to speak English with grammatical mistakes
C．to speak old English
D．to speak English without class distinction
4.It can be concluded from the passage that________.
A．standard English is taught only in schools and colleges
B．there has been a great change in the English language in the previous century
C．the English language has not been influenced by the American English in the last 25 years
D．young people are defiant because they refuse to speak standard English
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
As the economy begins to recover, salary increases should do the same.
In the past few years, employers have raised workers’ salaries by about 4 percent per year--except for 2009, when the figure dropped to a historically low 2.1 percent, according to a survey of World at Word. About one-third of companies froze raises altogether.
For 2010, World at Work’s survey projects an average salary increase budget of 2.7 percent, a figure that shows the situation has improved but the job market is still weak. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of companies said they would freeze raises--far fewer than in 2009, but still more than in most years.
How can you get a raise? Avalos and others offer the following tips:
* Do your job well. This means producing high-quality work, of course, but also keeping the big picture in mind.
“It really comes down to positioning yourself as a high performer, somebody who is aware of business goals and helps the company meet their goals as an organization”, Avalos said
* Be visible. When times are tough, some workers think. “I’m going to hunker down and hope that nobody notices me, because I don’t want to be on a layoff list,” said Richard Phillips, owner of Advantage Career Solutions. This is a mistake, because you’re unlikely to get a raise if no one knows what you have accomplished. “If anything, what you want to do is be more visible.”
* Make your boss’s life easier. This means everything from having a good attitude to taking on extra tasks. If you don’t know how you can help your boss, ask.
* Ask for a raise. Talk to your boss and present your case: Here’s what I’ve done, here’s how it fits with the company’s goals, and here is why I think it’s worth a salary increase. In some cases, even if your company has an official raise freeze, you can get a raise if you make good case.
If the answer is no -- or if you’re not ready to ask directly -- Phillips suggests asking, “What would you like to see from me that would put me in line for a raise?”
A question like this can improve your standing. “Just asking the question says to the boss, ‘I’m thinking about where I fit in here, what I can do,” Phillips said, “That in and of itself has value.”
1.The passage is mostly from a\an________.
A. novel B. science fiction
C. magazine D. biography
2.Employers have raised workers’ salaries by about _______percent in 2007.
A. 4 B. 2.1 C. 2.7 D. 10
3.If you want to get a raise, the most important thing you should keep in your mind is to ______.
A. have your job done well B. be visible everywhere as possible as you can
C. ask your boss for a raise directly D. change your job
4.All the statements are true except________.
A. the situation has improved but the job market is still weak
B. salary increases should recover as the economy does
C. producing high-quality work will surely help you get a raise
D. that in and off an employee makes no difference
高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
In January, British actor Eddie Redmayne made headlines around the world as he became the latest member of smartphone refuser. “It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours,” he explained, turning instead to an old-fashioned “dumb phone” handset that could only make and take calls.
He is not alone. There is a small but busy market for phones that are simple and cheap at a time when smartphones are becoming ever more complex and expensive. Basic phones — handsets with some basic functions such as playing music and accessing the Internet — are gradually being replaced by low cost smartphones, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC, the research group. But there is still a significant demand for older-style phones.
Strategy Analytics, a research group, estimates that 44,000,000 basic phones were sold in 2015, accounting for 2 percent of the global market. Some phonemakers, such as Sony and LG, have already turned their back on the market. But others like Microsoft and Samsung are still producing devices every year aimed at the basic phone market.
Many smartphone users beef about having to buy devices that are easily broken, require daily recharging and which will be replaced by a new, better version within a year. Even basic smartphones offer more functions that not many people need.
Some users buy phones with limited or no Internet connections in a conscious attempt to keep away from the modern digital world. Analysts say that there is a growing number of “second phoneys” who use an expensive smartphone during the day, but turn to cheaper, pocket-sized devices when they go out in the evening.
Light Phone founder Joe Hollier falls into this camp. He has developed a credit card-sized phone without a data connection and no extra functions other than to make calls. He describes a feeling of huge relief when the ability to check emails or status updates is removed. Light Phone functions as a companion device to a smartphone but Mr Hollier hopes it will also encourage people to unplug from the modern Internet world.
1.What is the function of paragraph 1?
A. To lead to the topic. B. To summarize the whole passage.
C. To analyze the situation of phone usage. D. To deepen the theme.
2.The expression “beef about” may be replaced by “________” in the passage.
A. care about B. approve of
C. complain of D. think over
3.Joe Hollier developed the new card-sized phone to ________.
A. save money B. relax the mind
C. save time D. keep healthy
4.What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Some people prefer basic phones to smart phones.
B. What are the functions of basic phones.
C. The old-fashioned phones have many advantages.
D. The future of smartphones is gloomy.
高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
The first textbooks written for teaching English as a foreign language ___ in the 16th century.
A. came about B. came out C. came along D. came up
高二英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
Schedules (timetables), as the 21st century people know, simply did not exist in the 17th and 18th centuries. We are upset if a plane arrives an hour late. Our ancestors weren’t upset if an April ship didn’t show up until June. They began to worry in July and were often happy when it showed up in August. When a long-distance ship finally did get to the port, the whole city became busy and excited. Businessmen hurried down to check the goods they had ordered. The ship would probably stay in port for at least three days, often a week, to take on businessmen, give the sailors a rest, find out about the latest news, weather conditions, and so on.
Travel time could only be approximate (近似的). One never knew when the winds would be good. So even though “average(平均的) sailing time” was given, time could change considerably, shortening the voyage (travel by sea) by up to 25% or putting it off by up to 500% or more! The average run from England to Boston was about a month and a half, but there were also voyages of three months. One voyage in 1640 lasted six months!
Travel time is not the same in both directions, due to the winds and currents. This is especially true in the Caribbean, where winds are from the southeast the entire year. Ships sailing west across the Atlantic spend longer than ships sailing east, and the contrary (opposite) winds can prevent a ship from actually making it to the harbor even if it gets close. One ship was held off the North Carolina coast for 17 days before being able to land!
1.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. No sailor was allowed to have fun when the ship reached land.
B. People in ancient times didn’t care about other people’s safety.
C. The ship would leave for a voyage when all of the preparations were made.
D. A long-distance ship would create a lot of excitement in the place where it landed.
2.According to the passage, travel time can’t be fixed due to _____.
A. the people at the port B. average sailing time
C. the changeable climate D. the businessmen and the sailors
3. The underlined word “currents” in the third paragraph means ______.
A. the movement of water B. the movement of winds
C. direction of the traveling ship D. travel time of ships
4.What is the difference between a modern voyage timetable and the one from the 17th or 18th century?
A. There were no exact timetables for traveling both in ancient and modern times.
B. Travel time was the same in both directions in ancient times while the modern one was not.
C. The modern voyage timetable is more exact than the ancient one.
D. The modern voyage timetable is only approximate while the ancient one was not.
5.Why did the ships sailing west spend longer than ships sailing east in Caribbean?
A. Because of the southeast winds the entire year.
B. Because sailors didn’t know when the winds blew.
C. Because travel time was not affected by wind.
D. Because sometimes the ship was held off by the wind.
高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析